Exercise: tone and painting

Make a new file exactly the same pixel dimension as the Rembrandt. The easiest way to do this is to select all (command A), copy (command c) and then make a new file. The size of the file will default to whatever is in your clipboard.

Start with a dark grey background (around the average value of the Rembrandt painting), not a white one. This grey will be your mid tone onto which you will apply your dark and light tones.

Place the two open windows next to each other (Window / Arrange / Tile All Vertically).

Paint a copy of the Rembrandt into this new file.

Remember:

Use the following tonal set: black, dark, mid, light, white. Other values will be blends of these.

Black and white are 'rare' values, do not over use them.

Details come last. Do not start with a super detailed rendering of the eye. To begin with, paint big and broad and establish the positive and negative space. After that, work down to the details.

Just as tones are 'three fold', so to are edges. An edge is hard, soft or diffuse. Edges are particular important in tonal painting, as they act to separate the tonal regions.

Assignment: Piranesi

He was an 18th century artist who was famous for his fantastical etchings of ruins. The perspective and tone of this art is what we will be learning from. Find a Piranesi etching that you like and re-do it as a science fiction image. Keep the overall form of the original but take liberties with everything else. The Objective is to produce a fantastical space. Pay attention to the quality of light, space and texture.

It is almost certain that you will require good textures. These can be downloaded from cgtextures.com. The school has an account with this website, the password and user name are in the animation folder: animation/LIBRARY/_assets/textures/CGTextures.com/readme.txt

cgtextures.com is limited to a fixed amount of downloads per day. It is recommended that you grab your download early. Remember, overlay blend mode is good for textures.

Don't just use imagination, use reference. Use black and white only... no color.